In the largest expansion of health care for children since Medicaid's creation in 1965, Uncle Sam is about to hand the states $24 billion to cover up to half of America's 10-million uninsured kids. But most states are already a step or two ahead of Washington. Using a variety of approaches, most notably broadening Medicaid eligibility, nearly every state, including California, has extended coverage to children of working but low-income families in recent years.

Responding to growing frustration with managed care, President Clinton named a high-level commission Wednesday to protect patients from arbitrary rules and assure that quality care is not sacrificed for profits. The president charged the commission with developing a "Consumer Bill of Rights" that could serve as the basis for federal or state legislation or as a set of voluntary standards for insurance plans.

A federal advisory panel on Wednesday acknowledged in frustration that the medical community lacks remedies to help the nearly 4 million Americans chronically infected with Hepatitis C, a stubborn and wily virus that has eluded both an effective treatment and vaccine. Although the incidence of new Hepatitis C infections appears on the decline since its peak in 1989, there are an estimated 30,000 new cases annually in the United States and 8,000 deaths.

On the heels of a $325-million Medicare fraud settlement with SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories, the federal government disclosed plans Monday for a major expansion of efforts to detect medical providers who bill Medicare and Medicaid for services they did not perform. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, leading a parade of officials to highlight the fraud issue, said companies dealing with the federal government's health programs should adopt voluntary internal guidelines to prevent or detect fraud.

In an unusual move, the Justice Department is telling Congress it no longer will defend in court a federal law that allows Medicare and Medicaid payments to Christian Science care-givers. A federal judge in Minnesota ruled in August that such payments, permitted since the mid-1960s, violate the constitutional separation of church and state. In a letter to the Senate legal counsel, Atty. Gen.

About one-third of hospital patients feel poorly prepared to go home, have trouble getting questions answered or feel they don't have enough input on their treatment, a survey said. Boston-based Picker Institute, a health care consumer research firm, conducted the study. Picker surveyed 23,763 hospital patients and 13,363 patients in clinics or doctors' offices around the country in 1996. Its findings were echoed by focus groups conducted by the American Hospital Assn.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said Monday that Medicare beneficiaries should expect to pay more to keep the huge health program on a sound financial basis. The comments were the strongest yet from a top-ranking Republican on the coming debate over Medicare, and they suggest a possible replay of two years ago, when an intense partisan battle ended with nothing being done to solve Medicare's looming financial failure.

Three out of four insured U.S. workers received health coverage through managed care in 1995, a dramatic jump in two years fueled by both small businesses and self-insured large companies, a study said. In 1993, about half the Americans insured through employers were in managed care. That jumped to 73% by 1995, according to an article in the journal Health Affairs, published by Project Hope.

Medicare beneficiaries are likely to pay sharply higher prices next year for the supplemental insurance they buy to help with doctor and hospital bills, insurance industry officials said Thursday. Prudential Insurance, the nation's largest Medicare insurance carrier, said its prices could rise as much as 15% nationally, as much as 30% for some policies in California.